Top Pelosi deputy doesn’t know if Dems have votes for health care

Rep. George Miller, California Democrat and one of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s closest allies, was furiously working his cell phone and blackberry outside the Capitol around 1 p.m., as most House Democrats began a caucus meeting.

Amid reports that Pelosi has said she has the votes to pass a health care bill if they voted today, Miller appeared to be more uncertain about the prospects for that.

Asked if Democrats have the votes for a bill, Miller said, “I don’t know. I don’t know.”

“I’m doing this,” he said, motioning to his blackberry and shooing me away.

Miller’s comments only reinforce that the state of play remains, more than anything, uncertain, as we wrote this morning. Pelosi’s office told me basically the same thing, as they wait for reconciliation language and a CBO preliminary score, which they do not think will come today.

And here is our latest count of responses from the 38 House Dems who voted no in November.